Caol Ila Distillery Visit August 2022
Caol Ila (pronounced ‘Cull Eela’) is the Gaelic name for the Sound of Islay and the distillery takes it’s name from its location, nestled By the shoreline a short distance from Port Askaig on Islay’s East coast.
First established in 1846 by Glasgow distillery owner Hector Henderson, it changed hands several times before finally becoming part of the DCL (now known as Diageo) family. In 1972 the old distillery was demolished and replaced by a much larger, more industrial scale distillery with the capacity to make it the largest whisky producer on the island. Most of the spirit was used for blends, most notably the Diageo owned Johnnie Walker brand.
The distillery developed the capability of producing both peated and unpeated spirits, something which proved to be a major asset in ensuring its ability to continue production during the infamous Whisky Loch period of the 1980s.
Most recently, the distillery has had a major revamp in line with a number of other Diageo-owned distilleries who contribute to the Johnnie Walker blends. The idea was to improve the visitor experience and tie in more closely to the highly popular Johnnie Walker brand. The new visitor centre and ‘full-sensory, immersive experience’, reopened on the 25th August 2022, luckily perfectly timed to coincide with our visit to the island.
The tour could be roughly divided into three sections, I’ll go through each in turn.
The first section was within the visitor centre, and comprised an overview of the spirit and the raw materials, together with a history of the distillery and it’s relationship with Johnnie Walker.
Part 1 was an introduction to the typical character of the Caol Ila spirit which involved sticking our noses in various pots to try and identify notes (albeit with prompts which tended to lead rather than let everyone make up their own minds).
Following that, we were led through to a very impressive 3D audio-visual on some of the history surrounding the distillery.
The final part of the section was an introduction to the three raw materials used in the production of whisky. Something in common with pretty much every other distillery tour, but done in an innovative way which kept the audience engaged.
We were then taken through to the second part of the experience, a chance to geek out with a tour of the distillery itself.
In common with most distilleries these days, malting is no longer done onsite. Instead, Caol Ila buy their malted barley in from Port Ellen Maltings, another part of the Diageo family.
The barley is then milled and graded using their Porteus mill, which was installed in the 1950s, before being sent for loading into the mash tun.
Unusually, the mash tun at Caol Ila is a Lauter tun with a steel bottom but the top is made of copper.
After three separate extraction stages using water at increasing temperatures, the resultant wash is transferred to one of the 8 Oregon Pine washbacks.
Part of this section of the tour also included an explanation of the fermentation process and the various characteristics which can be introduced depending on the fermentation time.
From there we headed to everybody’s favourite part of a distillery…
Located on the Sound of Islay overlooking the Paps of Jura, Caol Ila has one of the most iconic views of any still room.
Befitting a distillery with such a high capacity, Caol Ila boasts 3 wash stills together with 3 spirit stills.
We were unable to get a picture of the spirit safe on this occasion, so here’s one from a previous visit in 2005.
Before heading back to the visitor centre we were taken into one of the warehouse floors and given an opportunity to sniff a few empty casks. As always, this was enlightening as we got the chance to compare different types of casks, malt whisky versus grain and even casks from different Diageo distilleries.
From there it was back for the much anticipated tasting session where we got to try three Caol Ila expressions, the flagship 12 year old, a Distillery Exclusive and the ‘Bottle Your Own’ available in the visitor centre shop, together with a cocktail (Johnnie Walker Double Black and lemonade). Reviews of the individual whiskies are available via the links.
Although we didn’t have time to try it, there is also a large bar area in the visitor centre where flights or individual drams can be had from across the Diageo whisky portfolio.
Overall, it was a good visitor experience with some nice innovations to lift it above the usual distillery tour. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and happy to answer any questions, and the tasting was quite informal allowing discussion across the group. It’s probably the most visitor friendly of all the distilleries we’ve visited, but there is a danger of it coming across as a bit of a theme park experience.
The visitor centre shop was well stocked and contained a selection of whiskies from across the Diageo range. In keeping with current Diageo pricing strategy, it’s safe to say the shop prices were on the steep side.
Taking everything into account it’s a considerable improvement on the old visitor experience, especially the shop which was always limited in size and selection. If I had any negatives it would have to be that it felt a little too ‘corporate’ (if the same graphics, props and audio-visual style are standard across the group, the various tours could be very repetitive). Also, the focus on the Johnnie Walker brand seemed at times to be given more importance than the Caol Ila distillery itself. With that in mind, I’ll leave you with one final photo…
